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Junichi Masuda
Photo: Joi Ito, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons14

Junichi Masuda

Japanese video game composer and developer (born 1968)

Junichi Masuda (増田 順一, Masuda Jun'ichi; born January 12, 1968) is a Japanese video game composer, director, designer, producer, singer, programmer and trombonist, best known for his work in the Pokémon franchise. He was a member of Game Freak where he was an employee and executive at the company since 1989 after Satoshi Tajiri and Ken Sugimori founded it, starting as a music composer.2

From Wikipedia’s article on Junichi Masuda (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Born Jan 12, 1968.1

About

In 2022, Masuda was appointed to be Chief Creative Fellow at The Pokémon Company.

With the development of new Pokémon games, Masuda took new roles in future projects. He began to produce and direct games, starting with Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, and became responsible for approving new character models. His style seeks to keep games accessible while still adding increasing levels of complexity. His work sticks to older mainstays of the series, including a focus on handheld game consoles and 2D graphics. His music draws inspiration from the work of celebrated modern composers like Dmitri Shostakovich, though he used the Super Mario series as a model of good video game composition.

From Wikipedia’s article on Junichi Masuda, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2

Companies

Early life and education

  • Date not recordedJapan Electronics College3
  • Date not recordedTorei Gakuen Fujisawa Junior and Senior High School3

Career

Occupation: composer, engineer, film director, screenwriter, game designer, manufacturer, programmer.6

Masuda has worked at Game Freak since the company's inception in 1989, and has been involved in nearly every title that Game Freak has produced. Masuda was one of the original developers of the Pokémon series, beginning with Pokémon Red and Green. He was first hired to compose video game music, where his first game at Game Freak was Mendel Palace, a 1989 puzzle game for the Nintendo Entertainment System. After Mendel Palace, he worked on Yoshi, the company's first collaboration with Nintendo.

When the company first began releasing Pokémon titles, Masuda worked mainly as the composer, though he did minor programming work as well, and later began directing and producing them. His work on the first games included writing the program to play audio in the games, music, and sound effects. Masuda has been directly involved in the naming and design of many Pokémon. He has stated that one of the hardest aspects of design is making sure that a Pokémon's name and attributes will appeal to a global audience. Since Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, Masuda has been one of the main employees who approve or reject designs for new Pokémon. He served as a member of the Game Freak board of directors.

June, 2014, Masuda was present for the opening of The Pokémon Center Paris the first Pokémon store in Europe

held at the historic Cremerie de Paris. a landmark location connected to Gabrielle Chanel and her friend the Russian composer Igor Stravinski.

On September 28, 2018, Masuda revealed that during the early years of developing Pokémon games, "game data was nearly lost in a computer crash". Masuda described it as "the most nerve-racking moment in development", saying "We were developing the game on these Unix computer stations called the Sun SPARCstation 1. We're developing, and they're these Unix boxes, and they crashed quite a bit."

On November 1, 2018, Masuda stated that Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! would likely be his final time serving as director for the main series Pokémon games. The development torch to was passed to Shigeru Ohmori, who had previously assume lead director of Pokémon Sun and Moon. However afterwards, he served as a director for Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, developed by ILCA.

Masuda produced the Japanese ending themes "Pokémon Shiritori" and "Batsugun Type" for Pokémon Journeys with Japanese electronic group Pasocom Music Club.

On June 1, 2022, Masuda left Game Freak to The Pokémon Company, acting as Chief Creative Fellow.

From Wikipedia’s article on Junichi Masuda (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Personal life

  • BornJan 12, 1968, Yokohama7
  • CitizenshipJapan8

Sources

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